The Istanbul Museum designed by Renzo Piano
In Turkey, the Museum of Contemporary Art designed by Renzo Piano was inaugurated: five floors and over 10,000 square meters on the Bosphorus
Indeed a new museum a new headquarters for Istanbul Modernreplacing the previous one that opened in 2004. And that was it designed by Studio Renzo Piano Workshop Building: an imposing five-storey building with a total area of over 10,000 square meters and a view of the Bosphorus.
The new headquarters was inaugurated on May 4th last year in full swing election campaignand immediately became a multi-functional cultural center for Turkish daily life, complete with library, restaurant, bookshop and stunning panoramic terrace on the Bosphorus, which attracted countless tourists. Large windows, iron bars and rough concrete do not spoil the sanctity of the surrounding minarets: we are in European Istanbul, on the “Golden Horn”, where the Marmara, Black and Mediterranean Seas intersect. Inside, the atmosphere is subdued, leaving no room for the muezzin’s chanting or the chaos of Istanbul’s constant traffic. As soon as you cross the threshold, you find yourself in one of the most sober museums in the world, where several white rooms are lined up like a labyrinth.
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The idea of re-establishing the old museum for contemporary art was born in 1987, during the first Istanbul International Biennial (now in its 17th edition in 2022): an institution that for centuries, in dialogue with the Western tradition and in balance with the Arab Middle East, strongly added to the already existing dynamism of a centenary culture has contributed culture.
Located in the Beyoğlu district of the Galataport complex, the museum experienced (prior to its current location) various vicissitudes between textile and industrial camps to find local sponsors and works to become part of the permanent collection.
As the Turkish people witnessed the country’s accession negotiations to the European Union, building the museum in 2004 on an 8,000-square-meter site owned by the Turkish Maritime Organization seemed another approach for the rest of the world.
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